News & InsightS

We have launched a new service for experience design that infuses our design philosophy of diversity, surprise and action with the signature on-stage style of our CEO Frans Johansson, whose dynamic delivery, fast pace and use of bold visuals and riveting soundtracks have captivated audiences worldwide.

While we can design content and programming for any event, our expertise falls into two areas—innovation and strategy and diversity and inclusion—both strategic priorities that top CEO agendas today.

In late September, THE MEDICI EFFECT will be published in German, marking the book’s 20th translation since its first publication in 2004. To celebrate, Medici CEO Frans Johansson will be in Germany and Austria this fall to talk about how diversity drives innovation and growth. Look for Frans in Munich, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Vienna.

Frans Johansson explores the idea of “intersectional thinking” in his book The Medici Effect, proposing that the best ideas emerge from the collision of different industry insights. Despite these clear benefits, however, most people tend to connect with others whose perspectives, backgrounds, and cultural norms are similar to their own.

The Medici Group created an epic event for Spotify, curating the experience with diverse voices on stage and interactive elements. A key takeaway:

Diversity and inclusion drive innovation and speed. If we want to get all the benefits that can come with diversity, we all need to be truly inclusive and don’t “culturally sanitize” ourselves. For an individual to hide their uniqueness is unhealthy, but also harmful to innovation, as it takes away the diversity that can give us an innovative edge.

On the closure of 8,000 Starbucks stores for an afternoon of racial sensitivity training, The Medici Group’s CEO Frans Johansson commented: “Unconscious bias training is important, but it’s a baseline. You need an overarching philosophy about why diversity and inclusion matters.”

Ever heard of the Medici Effect? It says the world’s greatest innovations have one thing in common: diversity of input resulting from convergence of ideas in art, science, astronomy, and engineering that occurred in Florence during the fifteenth century. Study after study proves this to be the case today in business.

On Uber’s latest diversity report, The Medici Group’s CEO Frans Johansson: “While a loss in general female representation in leadership is non-ideal, the gains made by Uber’s female tech leadership is very encouraging. The case can be made that this metric is far more interesting and valuable, especially as it pertains to innovation and business performance, for Uber and tech companies in general.”

Most of us want to work in an innovative workplace, but you could be subliminally creating a culture that squelches creative thinking.

“We codify our behaviors, our instincts, and our thinking based on language, and it often happens in ways we don’t anticipate,” says Frans Johansson, author of The Medici Effect: What Elephants & Epidemics Can Teach Us about Innovation and CEO of The Medici Group, diversity and innovation consultants. “Certain terms and phrases get traction and are repeated over and over. Before you know it, it’s the way you talk within your culture.”

Click here to read the full interview with our Founder and CEO Frans Johansson on Fast Company.

Thrive Global is a corporate and consumer well-­being and productivity platform that offers science-based solutions to improve performance, founded by Arianna Huffington. Johansson recently shared the "5 things I wish someone told me when I first started and why".

Most companies still struggle to jump start innovative thinking because they overlook the small details embedded within an organization's culture: the everyday, ritualistic occurrences that subliminally signal to employees that they shouldn't spend time exploring a new idea, let alone bring it up to the rest of their team. The most pervasive of these subliminal signals are the words that a company allows in its everyday vocabulary, which may at first seem harmless, but in reality could be stifling innovation potential.

Go here to read the rest of our CEO Frans Johansson’s article on how to use language to ignite innovation and creative thinking.

The Howard R. Swearer Center at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) convened Rhode Island community members, leaders and students to address food-related challenges at Ocean State Innovate (OSI) 2018. The day-and-a-half intensive forum was made possible in collaboration with The Medici Group, an innovation strategy firm founded by its current CEO and Brown University alum, Frans Johansson ‘95.

Click here to learn more about Ocean State Innovate and our collaboration with the Swearer Center.

We’re thrilled to share that The New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) is honoring our CEO Frans Johansson with this year’s Creative Entrepreneurship Award. Frans’s contributions to the field of innovation, specifically in the area of intersectional innovation, align with the NYSCI’s own values and commitment to inspiring innovation from diverse minds, peoples, ideas and concepts—a fitting tribute to NYSCI’s location in Queens, NY, one of the most diverse cities in the world.

The Medici Group's CEO Frans Johansson will keynote the 2018 SITE+MPI Global Forum in Rome, organized by Meeting Professionals International (MPI) and Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE). His talk will focus on the ideas of his book, The Medici Effect: Whatever field or industry you are in, whatever expertise you have mastered, whatever norm or tradition you have come to understand—all of them are changing. To stay ahead of these changes and continuously innovate, step into the Intersection of fields, disciplines, industries and cultures.

In addition, Medici's Chief Experience Officer Kristian Ribberström will lead the Executive Master Class on The Medici Effect in Action.

The Medici Group is excited to team up again with Ocean State Innovate to tackle community issues. This year's focus will be on FOOD. Ocean State Innovate was founded to bring together Rhode Islanders from diverse backgrounds to break down silos and make new solutions possible.

This year's event is made possible through the partnership between Relish Rhody, the RI Food Policy Council, the RI Director of Food Strategy, and the Swearer Center at Brown University.

Frans Johansson, founder and CEO of The Medici Group, explores innovation at the intersection with THE MEDICI EFFECT PODCAST. Season 1 guests such as legendary Nike designer Jason Mayden, illusionist David Copperfield, and physicist and bestselling author Lisa Randall will share how they create the Medici Effect every day.

Featuring a new preface, discussion guide, and a foreword by Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile, The Medici Effect is even more relevant today than when it was first published in 2004. The new edition is available in hard cover and paperback. For bulk orders, please contact us.